This post is part of a series on Paul Draper’s classic version of the evidential argument from evil. In the previous entry, I summarized Draper's first argument, which attempts to show that certain facts about the types, quantity, and distribution of pain and pleasure (P&P) are much more probable on the hypothesis of indifference (HI) than on theism (T), and so constitute strong evidence against T and for HI. In this entry, I summarize Draper's discussion of theistic explanations for those f … [Read more...]

This post is part of a series on Paul Draper's classic version of the evidential argument from evil. In the previous entry, I explained Draper's terminology and summarized the logical form of Draper's two arguments. In this entry, I focus on Draper's first argument, which attempts to show that known facts about the biological role of pain and pleasure are much more probable on the hypothesis of indifference than on the hypothesis of theism.1. Background KnowledgeLike all abductive a … [Read more...]

The academic journal Nous published an article by Paul Draper in 1989 on the evidential argument from evil. (The article used to be available online for free but is now only available behind a paywall at JSTOR.) The article is now widely regarded as a 'classic' in the contemporary literature on the problem of evil; it has been republished in numerous anthologies and readers.In this part, I'll summarize the terminology he uses and provide a basic overview of the argument's logical structure o … [Read more...]

Marilyn McCord Adams is a Christian philosopher and a former Episcopalian priest who has thought deeply about so-called horrendous evils. I define 'horrendous evils' as 'Evils the participation in (the doing or suffering of) which gives one reason prima facie to doubt whether one's life could (given their inclusion in it) be a great good to one on the whole.' Such reasonable doubt arises because it is so difficult humanly to conceive how such evils could be overcome. ...I offer the … [Read more...]